either — English Dictionary

Determiner

1. Any one (of two).

   Examples

   You can have it in either colour.

2. Each of two; both.

   Examples

   There is a locomotive at either end of the train, one pulling and the other pushing.

   There are roses on either side of the garden.

   More examples (2)

   His flowing hair In curls on either cheek played.

   Her hands, long and beautiful, lay on either side of her face.

3. Any one (of more than two).

   Usage

   • often
   • proscribed

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   I hope you will be ready to own publicly, whenever you shall be called to it, that by your great and frequent urgency you prevailed on me to publish a very loose and uncorrect account of my travels, with directions to hire some young gentleman of either university to put them in order, and correct the style, as my cousin Dampier did, by my advice, in his book called “A Voyage round the world.”

   They entreat, they pray, they beg, they supplicate (will either of these do, Miss Clary?) that you will make no scruple to go to your uncle Antony's […].

Pronoun

1. One or the other of two people or things.

   Examples

   He made me two offers, but I did not accept either.

   More examples (1)

   Hodgson may now have to bring in James Milner on the left and, on that basis, a certain amount of gloss was taken off a night on which Welbeck scored twice but barely celebrated either before leaving the pitch angrily complaining to the Slovakian referee.

2. Both, each of two or more.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

   Examples

   Scarce a palm of ground could be gotten by either of the three.

   And either vowd with all their power and wit, / To let not others honour be defaste […]

   More examples (1)

   There have been three famous talkers in Great British, either of whom would illustrate what I say about dogmatists.

Adverb

1. As well.

   Usage

   • conjunctive
   • not-comparable
   • after a negative

   Examples

   I don't like him, and I don't like her either.

   I know a cheap Spanish restaurant. It's not far from here, either.

   More examples (1)

   But Richmond[…]appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw[…]that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either.

Conjunction

1. Introduces the first of two (or occasionally more) options or possibilities, the second (or last) of which is introduced by “or”.

   Synonyms

   whether

   Related words

   neithernoror

   Examples

   Either you eat your dinner or you go to your room.

   You can have either potatoes or rice with that, but not both.

   More examples (4)

   You'll be either early, late, or on time.

   Either you'll finish your homework or you'll be grounded.

   You can't be a table and a chair. You're either a Jew or a gentile.

   Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language[…]his clerks[…]understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.

Adverb

1. after a negative statement used as an intensive meaning something like ‘likewise’ or ‘also’

   Examples

   he isn't stupid, but he isn't exactly a genius either

   I don't know either

   More examples (1)

   if you don't order dessert I won't either